For minecraft 1.8 and above: http://adf.ly/1FuqyK andhttp://adf.ly/1FurEf
For now, there are no F&MF or casual versions of SC for 1.8+.
They will likely be brought back sometime in the distant future.
Special thanks to echonite for helping out with this!

Strongestcraft F&MF: http://adf.ly/qB1Wo and http://adf.ly/qB1gJ"F&MF" stands for "(Nether) Fortress and Mycelium Finder." It makes nether fortresses and mycelium islands/blocks MUCH easier to spot from a distance, but since it makes them completely solid, you aren't able to see through them once you reach them.

Strongestcraft Casual:http://adf.ly/qB1b3 and http://adf.ly/qB1gnThe casual version makes dirt, grass, stone and sand completely solid and normal. Great for first time users, or when you're in an area with plenty of holes or ravines in the ground.

If you have any pictures of your own that you've taken while using Strongestcraft and would like for them to be featured here in this first post, feel free to submit them!

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Benefits:* Spot strongholds instantly*Discover ravines in a flash* Locate dungeons quickly and easily* Quickly spot melon seed-filled mineshafts* Spot enemies waiting for you outside your home* Detect traps before they have a chance to hurt you* No more mining random tunnels until you find a cave* See large cave systems that you never knew existed* Light up dark areas with night vision pumpkin helmets* Easily avoid enemies, lava, griefers and other hazards* Never worry about clouds, rain, snow or fire obscuring your vision* Never again lose track of where your house is after an hour or two of spelunking* Know which way is north/south/east/west, thanks to the sun/moon compasses* Know exactly when your crops are fully grown, thanks to the crop countdown timer* Open your inventory without fear of being creepered, thanks to the transparent menus* Remember you can use wooden items to fuel furnaces, thanks to the interface reminder* Wear pumpkin helmets without the usual clutter (Look at endermen without being attacked)* Use these benefits on worlds/servers with FTB, NetherOres, Tekkit, TFC, The Aether and more* Efficiently locate ores and other valuable resources (Works well in conjunction with x-ray mods)* Distinguish valuable blocks from one another without torches, due to unique pixel arrangements* And more!

If you have any suggestions to make this pack even better, let me know!

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Videos

of Strongestcraft, version .05, taken on 4-23-2011.

If you have any videos of your own that you've taken while using Strongestcraft and would like for them to be featured here in this first post, feel free to submit them!

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"Will you make your resource pack capable of seeing things like diamonds that are completely surrounded by stone?"

That isn't possible for me to do. That would involve editing lines of code, and that would make this a mod, not a resource pack. For most of the same reasons I plan on never making this resource pack require something like ModLoader, I also plan on never making Strongestcraft into an x-ray mod, or a separate x-ray mod to accompany it.

"Can you make it so the game shows lava/water blocks when you're underneath them/at their sides?"

Unfortunately, no; tying in with the above, that would involve modifying lines of code. It's impossible for me to make my resource pack reveal lava/water from the sides and underneath if those sides aren't in direct contact with air. Fortunately, however, you should be able to tell that lava is there due to how the area is lit up, not to mention that lava and water are impossible to miss as you're descending from the surface to the caverns below you since you'll be able to see them from the top. For more information on this, please read the lava safety guide in the first post of this thread.

"Why don't you keep all the ore's original textures or just change them all to be solid colored blocks?"

Early testing with keeping all the textures the same showed that 95-100% of people quickly became frustrated using this pack after mining great distances to reach what they thought were diamonds, only for it to be something they didn't need like coal, iron or redstone again and again and again. By changing the textures so that they're all different, they can be individually identified in pitch black areas, which is where you'll see around 95% of the ores underground: in pitch black areas where you can't see what color they are. The way ores appear now is about as efficient as it gets.

"I'm not sure how to install the resource pack!"

Don't worry, it's easy! All you have to do is:1: Go to C:\Users\[Your Name]\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\resourcepacks in Windows 7/8/Vista, or C:\document and settings\[Your Name]\Application Data\.minecraft\resourcepacks in Windows XP.2: Cut this entire .zip folder to the resourcepacks folder under .minecraft. As of 1.6+, DO extract the files! Again: you ARE supposed to remove the files from this .zip folder you download from this page, as of Minecraft 1.6 and above! Cut the ENTIRE FOLDER and paste it into the above location.3: Close the folder, start up the game, log in.4: Under "Mods and Resource Packs," select this resource pack, then click "Done."5: Enjoy!

"Sadly, I own a Mac! What do I do?"

Follow the steps listed here after downloading the resource pack you want. Alternatively, here are different instructions from another mac owner!

[quote="dbizzzle"]What you have to do is compress all the items inside the folder, not the folder itself, so navigate to the Strongestcraft folder but DON'T zip it, go into it and zip all of the items inside it. To do this, just highlight all the files and folders inside it, right click any of them and click "Compress 29 items" (I think that's how many, but if not it's close.) Finally, just put that zipped folder into the "resourcepacks" folder in your minecraft folder, hope I could help.

"I cut and pasted the contents of the folder to the "resourcepacks" folder. Why isn't it showing up under Mods and Resource Packs after I start the game?"

You may not have done it properly - if there are two main folders *inside* the folder you placed inside your resourcepacks folders, and they're not showing up: right click them, cut them from that location and move them up 1 folder.

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Lava Safety

Picture 1. So, you just found a diamond deep underground and you're ready to mine it, huh? Well, hold on- it's on the other side of a wall, right? One that no one's broken through before? Then... Why is it lit up, as if someone's placed a torch in there? There aren't any torches in there... Oh well, let's not stop to think about what could be giving off light- let's just mine through the wall and run straight toward that diamond!Picture 2. Or we could take the time to look at things from a different perspective. Literally. Well, would you look at that! No wonder that diamond was lit up and colored instead of shrouded in darkness! There's lava all around it! Let's look at another example of this.Picture 3. This is the same situation, just on a larger scale. Yes, there's really lava all throughout that chamber from the floor to the ceiling. In the center-right of the picture, you can even see multiple lava animations where embers shoot out and fall back in, leaving a smoke trail behind them. It might be difficult to tell from this picture, but since it's animated in-game, it's impossible to miss if you're paying attention.Picture 4. Caves filled to the brim with lava are very, VERY common when you're deep underground, as seen here. This is the average amount of lava that's beneath you at most times.

Spotting Dungeons

Picture 1. In this picture, if you look closely, you can see three dungeons. Because of the way the mossy cobblestone is lit up and green, there are two possibilities. Either the interior of the dungeon is being lit up by natural light- like lava- or it's being lit up by unnatural light- like torches that players have placed inside it. You can see torches in two of them and based on the proximity of the third to the other two, the proximity of the third to the spawn point on this multiplayer map and how rare it is for a dungeon to form in direct contact with lava, it's safe to assume that all three have been ransacked. Remember: If it's diamonds or mossy cobblestone, if it's lit up and colored, it's a trap. In the case of diamonds, there's lava nearby, likely all around it. In the case of mossy cobblestone, someone's beaten you to the dungeon and likely already taken the items from the chests.

Picture 2. This is how dungeons will appear when they're undiscovered. The one on the right is easy enough to notice at a glance, but can you see the one on the right, hidden behind a cave system from where the player is standing? Not only is it hidden behind that branch of a cave, it's hidden behind some flowing water, too, obscuring it a little more. Remember, it's often as helpful as it is important to try and look at things from different angles, both literally and figuratively.

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Change Log and miscellaneous information for forum moderators.

Click "Show" to see the change log!

Jul. 8th, 9:45 P.M:
Default MC changes:
Made the surface of water blocks more transparent in the main and F&MF versions of SC

TFC changes:
Added transparency for acacia planks, logs, log sides, log tops, leaves, leaves on fancy graphics, door tops and door bottoms
Added the first 3 letters of all 17 log names to their respective side textures, to be able to identify them without needing to break them with an axe or switching resource packs
Added the first 3 letters (or 5 in the case of pitchblende ore) of all 39 ore names to their respective texture, to be able to identify them without needing to mine them or switching resource packs
Left the casual version alone, aside from updating TFC snow tiles, adding all those acacia-related textures, making all 34 leaf blocks 2x more transparent and adding the first 3-5 letters of ore names to their respective textures
Made all 34 types of leaves 2x as transparent as they were before
Made all snow tiles, sea ice, 21 types of farmland, 21 types of sand and 22 types of soil transparent (again)
Made cat tails look significantly uglier, but also more transparent
Made the surface of water blocks more transparent

Jan. 11th 2014, 5:00 P.M:
Made cracked and mossy stone stronghold bricks flash, making strongholds impossible to miss, even from over 100 blocks away
Made all 3 versions of SC in 1.7 through 1.7.4 compatible with 1.5.2 versions of minecraft again, including the current version of Tekkit, which is apparently still all the way back using minecraft 1.5.2
Made water more transparent

Nov. 9th, 8:30 P.M:

Updated all the hundreds of TFC textures to work in the latest versions of TFC. This includes making grass, stone, etc. 100% solid/normal-looking in the casual version!

Nov. 2nd, 6:00 P.M:

Made all colors of stained glass, packed ice, podzol, the new leaves, the new logs, the new planks, the new slabs and the new stairs transparent
Made nether quartz ore flash at the same rate as diamond ore
Made red sand 32x instead of 16x and made it transparent, giving it an identical shape to regular sand
Made sand 32x instead of 64x
Made the bottom of double grass about 2x more transparent
Made the new leaves 32x instead of 16x
Made the top half of all new double plants invisible
Made the top of regular glass panes 16x instead of 64x, and very slightly transparent
Updated for 1.7+

Sep. 20th, 12:00 P.M:

Did pretty much everything that needed to be done with the aether; if you have recommendations to make blocks/menu GUIs/anything at all more solid or more transparent, let me know
Made dirt 32x instead of 64x in the normal and F&MF versions; it's still 16x in the casual version
Made sand completely solid/normal in the casual version

Sep. 14th, 1:00 A.M:

Made brewing stand, brewing stand base, brick, cake bottom, cake inner, cake side, cake top, cauldron bottom, cauldron inner, cauldron side, cauldron top, cobblestone, furnace front off, furnace front on, furnace side, furnace top, mushroom brown and mushroom red 16x16 instead of 64x64
Made crafting table front, crafting table side and crafting table top about 50% transparent
Made fire shorter. It's still very easily visible when it's on the ground, but when you're on fire, there'll only be 1 line of pixels at the very bottom of your screen, to let you know that fire is what's damaging you.
Made furnace front off, furnace front on, furnace side and furnace top about 25% transparent
Made horse health + jumping bars visible
Made mushrooms about 50% larger
Made water about 50% more visible
Updated about 30 GUI files, making them transparent in places where it would help

NOPE.
NUH-UH.
NOT UPDATING THIS PART.
Just below this part, line breaks are broken, so it all appears to be one paragraph that's 10+ pages long.
This is a glitch and I'm not fixing it. It would take WAY too long and would benefit nobody.

Jul. 2nd, 2:30 P.M:Added a new, transparent texture for both hay texturesAdded a new, transparent texture for coal blocksAdded a new, transparent texture for hardened clay and all 16 of its variantsAdded a new, transparent texture for all 23 TFC clay texturesMade all 4 anvil textures 16x instead of 64xMade all 6 bed textures 16x instead of 64xMade all 7 block textures 16x instead of 64xMade all 16 wool textures 16x instead of 64xMade all 23 TFC dirt textures roughly 2x as transparentMade all 23 TFC raw stone textures roughly 2x as transparentMade beacons 16x instead of 64xMade both trip wire textures 16x instead of 64xMade clay 16x instead of 64xMade command blocks 16x instead of 64xMade flower pots more transparentMade gravel's borders 2x more solidMade gravel 32x instead of 64xMade soul sand 16x instead of 64xMade tallgrass even more transparent by shaving off both side edges and the top edge againMade the top of grass blocks 50% more transparentMade the top of jukeboxes 16x instead of 64xMade vines 16x instead of 64x

Jun. 29th, 8:15 P.M:Changed iron ore's texture, due to its similarity to coal ore. It now looks like this: http://puu.sh/3r5We/daa96ecbbc.png The light gray-dark gray checkerboard pattern = transparencyMade diamonds an 8x32 texture that blinks very rapidly, which EASILY grabs people's attention, even from over 100 blocks awayMade dirt/grass blocks covered in snow and all 6 leaf textures 32x instead of 64x with no changes to their appearanceMade dispenser_front and dispenser_front_vertical 16x instead of 64x. Also, it's been summer for awhile now and you know what that means - this includes unknown_pack, pack of courseMade emeralds, mob spawners and mossy cobblestone 16x64 textures that blink more slowly than diamonds - but still pretty quickly - and EASILY grab people's attention, even from over 100 blocks awayMade obsidian 16x instead of 64x and made it just a little bit less solid, making large amounts of it that much easier to see throughMade pumpkinblur.png 64x instead of 256x and reduced the solidity of all 4 horizontal sections of it by about 33%Made reeds, the ore form of coal, gold, iron, lapis and redstone, torches, both melon textures, both stem textures, all 3 cocoa textures, all 3 TNT textures, all 3 workbench textures, all 4 carrot textures, all 4 potato textures, all 4 pumpkin textures, all 4 sapling textures and all 8 wheat textures 16x instead of 64x with no changes to their appearanceMade stone 32x instead of 64x, then made 50% of it 2x as transparent afterwardMade wild/tall grass and both types of flowers 16x instead of 64x, and cut off some of their edges to make them take up less space on your screen

All times listed are central time. If you need more information on anything else, don't hesitate to ask. To everyone who gives this pack a try, I hope you have more fun using it than I've had creating, maintaining and improving it!

The pack is great for seeing cave systems, but it does not properly show rare ore types.

This screenshot is from downloading and using your texture pack 20 minutes before the timestamp of this post:

This screenshot is the exact same vantage point, but with XRay v8 turned on. As you can see there are plainly gold and diamond veins, iron veins, etc. all very near. A lapis vein off to the left. None of these are visible in your texture pack.

shan - Is XRay v8 a texture pack, or something that actually adds, removes or modifies existing in-game coding? I know of no ways to have my texture pack draw blocks that aren't being hit by air blocks, liquid blocks or liquid tiles. If you know of any ways, please let me know- I'm interested in learning more about this!

dark - They're still more or less the same as they are in the pictures, just with thicker X's, and diamond/iron ores having slightly different colors.

zead - Thanks! If shan replies or I manage to find out how XRay v8 pulls off that magic trick on my own, then I'll be able to make my pack MUCH better!

Edit: After doing a quick search for "XRay v8," almost all of the search results seem to be mods/plugins for servers. That being the case, it seems like there's nothing I can do about making my texture pack show ores that are surrounded by other blocks on all sides, since that seems like it might be server-side coding, not clientside modification of how certain pixels show up on your screen. =P

Wonderful texture pack! I quite enjoy using it while exploring cave systems.

The only change I'd like to see would be more transparent cobblestone, other than that good job! :smile.gif:

Ahh, I must apologize for that- that was a tough call for me. On the one hand, I wanted cobblestone to be very visible from a distance to make dungeons much, MUCH easier to spot from a distance, since their walls always seem to be made up of much more cobblestone than mossy cobblestone. However, for obvious reasons, I still wanted them to be transparent to some degree. So I settled in-between, and made 'em about 50/50. In the near future, I might just end up making a pack just for you which features much more transparent cobblestone. I would right now if not for being busy, tired, and in a great deal of pain all at the same time.